“Lessons from St. Jeanne Jugan on Living the Mystery of Love”
Homily for Mass with the Little Sisters of the Poor/Closing of St. Anne’s Home
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 23, 2025; St. Dominic’s Church
Introduction
The young lady was walking the streets one cold winter day, and encountered an elderly woman who was blind, partially paralyzed, and had no one to care for her. So the young lady carried the old woman to her apartment and took care of her from that day forward, even letting the woman sleep in her bed while she herself slept in the attic. Soon after this, she took in two more elderly women in need of help, and two years later rented a room to provide housing for a dozen elderly people, eventually acquiring a building that could house forty such needy people.
As most of you here in this church know well, the year was 1839, the place was Saint-Servan in the Brittany region of France, and the young lady was Jeanne Jugan – or, whom we know now as St. Jeanne Jugan or, by her name in religion, St. Mary of the Cross. Such was the early beginning of a community that would later come to be called the Little Sisters of the Poor. Fast forward to 1901 when ten Little Sisters of the Poor first arrived on these shores, and the city of San Francisco becomes blessed by their presence, holiness and love in the establishing of St. Anne’s Home.
The Charism of St. Jeanne Jugan
Which brings us to where we are today. It is with heavy but indeed profoundly grateful hearts that we come to the closing of the Little Sisters’ witness to the love of Christ in our midst at St. Anne’s Home, not simply talking about it but making it visible day in and day out, in myriad little ways that add up to a giant treasury of blessing for all of us. They have truly lived the charism of their foundress in our midst for 124 years, a charism which Pope Benedict XVI described this way in the homily he gave at the Mass of her canonization:
Jeanne Jugan focused upon the elderly a compassionate gaze drawn from her profound communion with God in her joyful, disinterested service, which she carried out with gentleness and humility of heart, desiring herself to be poor among the poor. Jeanne lived the mystery of love, peacefully accepting obscurity and self-emptying until her death.
This is identifiable holiness in any age, but think about the age in which Jeanne grew up. It was in the wake of the French Revolution, and still within the living memory of many people was the mass assassination of priests and nuns. By the time Jeanne was growing up the government had allowed tolerance of religion, but the Church was still in disfavor and the government kept it under its control. It is a situation of persecution in the broad sense, which could be described as an environment where the Christian community is a disapproved and socially disenfranchised minority, and in which their mistreatment will meet with an at least tacit nod of approval of the wider society.
The Meaning for Us
How is a Christian to respond in such a situation? Our Lord makes this very clear in his teaching we find in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you, give to everyone who asks of you, from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back, do to others as you would have them do to you, stop judging, stop condemning, give and forgive. A veritable litany of the definition of holiness, that is, heroic virtue. And this is the ultimate question for a disciple, for the life of a disciple must be visibly distinguishable from those who do not believe or are of only lukewarm faith.
This is the uncomfortable challenge that our Lord gives us in his teaching today: “if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.” If our lives are in no way distinguishable from others who are of little or no faith, then we are betrayers of our Lord, even worse than those with no faith because we make ourselves into hypocrites.
Now go back to those words of Pope Benedict, and contrast St. Jeanne with those who claim to believe but are indistinguishable from those who don’t: joyful, disinterested service, gentleness and humility of heart, desiring to be poor among the poor, peacefully accepting obscurity and self-emptying until her death. How is such heroic virtue possible? He says so right there: it was “drawn from her profound communion with God.”
From the Old Adam to the New
Jeanne lived the “mystery of love” by manifesting it in its most concrete expression: the charity of Christ. That is, giving all of oneself without expecting anything in return. Such virtue is always heroic, but in the times in which Jeanne lived it was a superhuman charity that was required, something that can only come from a profound communion with God. Far from simply doing a good deed daily, or giving to help others, her deep spirituality showed her to be the image of Christ on earth.
In this, Jeanne gives us a living example of the point that St. Paul is teaching us in his First Letter to the Corinthians. The natural comes first, and then the spiritual: Adam was from earth, and the new Adam, Christ, from heaven. This is the journey the Christian is called to make, from the old Adam to the new Adam, from an earthly life to a heavenly life. Those who are redeemed are to resemble the risen Christ on earth. This is what Jeanne did for us.
Not all are called to this radical commitment of gospel poverty for the poor in the consecrated religious life. But all are called to resemble the risen Christ in their own proper vocation and state in life. This is the call that St. Paul holds out to us. He says, “Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.”
Christian Stewardship
That phrase, “we shall bear,” can also mean “let us bear.” That is, it is an exhortation for us to live in keeping with our Christian dignity. Only when all members of the Body of Christ, no matter their place and function in the Body, do so, only then will the new Adam from heaven prevail on the earth. Such is the example of the one who made the building of St. Anne’s Home possible in the first place. Edward Joseph LeBreton was one of San Francisco’s most successful businessmen at the time those first ten sisters arrived here. He quickly took an active interest in their work and is reported to have told them, “It is for God that I am giving. I will give you the home – complete – regardless of the cost…”. In doing so, he expressed the hope that St. Anne could be the patron of the new home, in honor of his mother.[2]
Mr. LeBreton used the gifts God gave him generously and devoutly, and for God’s purposes: the spreading of His love and the proclamation of His Gospel. He proved himself to be a true steward of God’s blessings, exactly as our Lord teaches in so many of his parables. Again, this is only possible when it comes from deep within one’s spirituality; without being deeply rooted in God, all of our efforts will fall short at best and more often fail, for ultimately it is God’s work.
The flourishing of St. Anne’s Home is an example of how it takes all of us living the call to Christian stewardship in accordance with our vocation and state in life that we can accomplish anything for God. The moment that brings us here today, then, is a clarion call for us to renew ourselves in the vocation of faithful and generous Christian stewardship, as God calls each of us according to the gifts He has entrusted to us.
Conclusion
The teaching our Lord gives us in the Gospel today follows upon his proclamation of the Beatitudes. Pope Benedict also made reference to this in describing the character of St. Mary of the Cross in that same homily at the Mass of her canonization. He said: “In the Beatitudes Jeanne Jugan found the source of the spirit of hospitality and fraternal love, founded on unlimited trust in Providence, which illuminated her whole life.”[3]
Unlimited trust in Providence: that is what we need always, but especially right now. So let us imitate the example of St. Mary of the Cross, for it is in “accepting obscurity and self-emptying … until death” that we can make heaven more present on earth. That is to say, the only way up is down! St. Mary of the Cross teaches us this with the witness of her life, and she teaches us to trust divine Providence: God will take care of us, He will take care of our beloved Little Sisters, and He will reward them abundantly for their selfless care of the needy elderly. For our part, let us ask Him to help us bear the image of His Son, the new Adam, to bring heaven down to earth – for His glory and our eternal happiness. Amen.